LOS ANGELES – This, this one was a treat.
And, here, I’m not even talking about the fact I covered this game free from the restraints of sweaty underpants.
I’m not kidding. On a day at Dodger Stadium when the opening-pitch temperature was 83 and the sun was as unrelenting as Scott Van Slyke’s beard, I wore

LOS ANGELES – Wow, just as anticipated, that was quite a non-waiver trade deadline!
Judging by the comments from the decision-makers, managers and players throughout baseball Friday, every team succeeded in doing exactly what it set out to do.
Amazing! I mean, what are the odds?
Sorry, but it’s just too easy t

And, meanwhile, we’re all still waiting for that A’s-Tigers American League Championship Series to begin.
It’s quite possible that no subject in sports receives more unrequited hype than baseball’s trading deadline, which is quite a statement, yes, seeing how much effort was put into documenting the NFL career of

Three letters define Mike Trout.
MVP.
Three letters nearly defined this Angels’ season.
MRI.
Three letters should define the current mood of the team’s fans.
OMG!
The one thing the Angels absolutely don’t need right now is the one thing that landed on their doorstep Tuesday. And t

TROUT’S TOWN, N.Y. – Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you today, here in the year 2035, a humbled man.
I was born in New Jersey as Michael Nelson Trout, nearly 44 years ago, born with the single mission of one day living this exact dream, this dream of being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Honestly, thoug

ANAHEIM – When he came to bat in the second inning Friday, he was decidedly booed, and who claimed Josh Hamilton’s time at Angel Stadium never would produce anything but disappointment?
Before the game, Hamilton said he expected to be booed in his return, the fans then coming through for him – ironically like he never d

ANAHEIM – The Angels have Mike Trout, who might be on his way to successfully defending his 2014 American League MVP award.
They have Albert Pujols, who, at the unlikely age of 35, could be the AL’s 2015 home run king.
They have Hector Santiago, who already was a surprise All-Star and perhaps next an AL Comeback Playe

LOS ANGELES – There they were again Tuesday, the optimism so abundant this time that it filled two rows of chairs, these Clippers gathered on stage looking not unlike a TV special reuniting the cast of “Friends.”

He could have been in Florida, at the draft, sharing the moment with the NHL’s next wave of young pups.
Instead, Brent Gates Jr. was in Minnesota, at a hotel, sharing the moment with, among others, an actual pup, a 4-pound Yorkie Pomeranian named Lilly.
For the most public occasion yet of his hockey career, Gates chose to k

The headline today is about DeAndre Jordan.
The story, however, is about Chris Paul.
Never in his 10-year NBA career – not even in the disastrous deciding moments of Game 5 against Oklahoma City in 2014, not even in horrifically blowing Game 6 and then the series to Houston in May &ndas

The Lakers took a second shot at free agent LaMarcus Aldridge on Thursday, which should be encouraging news, right?
This would be a great time to remember that only five teams were less accurate from the floor last season than the Lakers were. So why would they hit the most unlikely of 3-pointers now?
Especially after the histori

ANAHEIM – He wouldn’t address the details, Mike Scioscia saying he had to wait until a pregame meeting with the team president before knowing exactly what to say.
Personally, I figured the whole Angels franchise, unsure of the actual truth, was doing the same thing the rest of us were: Stalling until the next tweet from Ken R

She had to excuse herself. To vomit. Again. For the fifth time during a phone conversation approaching 10 hours in length.
“An explosion of everything” is how, four years later, she’d describe this discussion with a friend, a heart-emptying conversation that began late one day and didn’t end until early the next,